Wine and rap have gone together almost since the very beginning. In 1982, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five released their seminal album “The Message.” While the title track is one of the greatest hip-hop songs of all time, the second single is no slouch either. “It’s Nasty” has been sampled everywhere and marks one of the first rap mentions of wine: “Got fine, drink wine/Can dance and dine/Got a first class female oh so fine.” Back then, it was just about drinking wine with no mention of varietal or label. But in our current era of product placement, it’s all about name checking a brand.

The first major liquor brand to get big-ups from the hip-hop set was St. Ides in the early 90’s. Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube—all of the heavy hitters, really—hawked the Crooked I. When rap went upscale a few years later, malt liquor went out and Champagne took over. Songs changed from focusing on street life to life in the fast lane: nice cars, hot women, and poppin’ bottles in “da club.” The biggest sparkling brand was Cristal, which didn’t take too kindly to being the go-to bubbly of the hip-hop generation. After a Cristal executive basically told rappers to take their business elsewhere, Jay-Z organized a boycott against the brand. And then he (allegedly) invested in a Champagne label.

Armand de Brignac (a.k.a. “Ace of Spades”) is Jay-Z’s preferred brand of bubbles. The $250 golden bottle it comes in looks remarkably similar to Cristal and when Jay started spitting about it, rap acolytes jumped on the Ace of Spades train and sales shot through the roof. According to sources, it’s also a brand that makes him millions. A huge article in The Atlantic blew the whistle on the alleged collusion and has since been taken down—but not before exploding on the Internet. Jay’s a businessman (and a business, man) and clearly the new brand shout-outs were meant to line his pockets. When somebody does that on TV, he has to acknowledge that he’s a shill. In rap songs, though, it’s Product Placement City. Quick, Jay, what rhymes with “paid spokesman?”

Dropping label names is bad enough when you’re doing it for the cash, but what about when you just don’t know better? That brings us back to Moscato. Does any rapper know there’s a difference between Moscato d’Asti and any of the other Moscatos? To Moscato makers, it doesn’t matter. Sales have soared in the past two years to make it the fastest expanding varietal in the nation. That’s what happens when Kanye gets involved. Just to reiterate: It’s a dessert wine. And it’s good—kind of. I like Moscato d’Asti. It’s fizzy and sweet and all-around tasty at the end of the meal. Other kinds of Moscato are pretty gross, though. And I’m betting there’s a whole generation of rap fans forcing themselves to drink flat, sweet wine and pretending to love it because they don’t know the difference.

That’s what bothers me. When rappers weave wines into their rhymes, they’re giving them a stamp of approval. That approval has a huge real world effect. It turns into actual wine sales that end up marginalizing brands that have worked hard to put the best product possible on the market. It’s hard enough to capture enough market share for your label to survive. It’s a thousand times harder when Nicki Minaj is giving your competitor a shout-out because she’s getting kick-backs from the distributor (not that she is…) or because she couldn’t fit the full name of your product into her lyrics.

“I’m like Julius Caesar, when I come around you hail/
Fix me up a salad with tatsoi and kale.”
—The Nitpicker on his hit single “Leefi Greenz.”

1. miartnv reblogged this from feedingbigsexy
2. feedingbigsexy posted this

Wine and rap have gone together almost since the very beginning. In 1982, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five released their seminal album “The Message.” While the title track is one of the greatest hip-hop songs of all time, the second single is no slouch either. “It’s Nasty” has been sampled everywhere and marks one of the first rap mentions of wine: “Got fine, drink wine/Can dance and dine/Got a first class female oh so fine.” Back then, it was just about drinking wine with no mention of varietal or label. But in our current era of product placement, it’s all about name checking a brand.

The first major liquor brand to get big-ups from the hip-hop set was St. Ides in the early 90’s. Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube—all of the heavy hitters, really—hawked the Crooked I. When rap went upscale a few years later, malt liquor went out and Champagne took over. Songs changed from focusing on street life to life in the fast lane: nice cars, hot women, and poppin’ bottles in “da club.” The biggest sparkling brand was Cristal, which didn’t take too kindly to being the go-to bubbly of the hip-hop generation. After a Cristal executive basically told rappers to take their business elsewhere, Jay-Z organized a boycott against the brand. And then he (allegedly) invested in a Champagne label.

Armand de Brignac (a.k.a. “Ace of Spades”) is Jay-Z’s preferred brand of bubbles. The $250 golden bottle it comes in looks remarkably similar to Cristal and when Jay started spitting about it, rap acolytes jumped on the Ace of Spades train and sales shot through the roof. According to sources, it’s also a brand that makes him millions. A huge article in The Atlantic blew the whistle on the alleged collusion and has since been taken down—but not before exploding on the Internet. Jay’s a businessman (and a business, man) and clearly the new brand shout-outs were meant to line his pockets. When somebody does that on TV, he has to acknowledge that he’s a shill. In rap songs, though, it’s Product Placement City. Quick, Jay, what rhymes with “paid spokesman?”

Dropping label names is bad enough when you’re doing it for the cash, but what about when you just don’t know better? That brings us back to Moscato. Does any rapper know there’s a difference between Moscato d’Asti and any of the other Moscatos? To Moscato makers, it doesn’t matter. Sales have soared in the past two years to make it the fastest expanding varietal in the nation. That’s what happens when Kanye gets involved. Just to reiterate: It’s a dessert wine. And it’s good—kind of. I like Moscato d’Asti. It’s fizzy and sweet and all-around tasty at the end of the meal. Other kinds of Moscato are pretty gross, though. And I’m betting there’s a whole generation of rap fans forcing themselves to drink flat, sweet wine and pretending to love it because they don’t know the difference.

That’s what bothers me. When rappers weave wines into their rhymes, they’re giving them a stamp of approval. That approval has a huge real world effect. It turns into actual wine sales that end up marginalizing brands that have worked hard to put the best product possible on the market. It’s hard enough to capture enough market share for your label to survive. It’s a thousand times harder when Nicki Minaj is giving your competitor a shout-out because she’s getting kick-backs from the distributor (not that she is…) or because she couldn’t fit the full name of your product into her lyrics.

“I’m like Julius Caesar, when I come around you hail/
Fix me up a salad with tatsoi and kale.”
—The Nitpicker on his hit single “Leefi Greenz.”

1. miartnv reblogged this from feedingbigsexy
2. feedingbigsexy posted this